Slavery is not new to America. It was the year 1619 when the first African slaves arrived in Virginia. Allow for just a moment for the reality of that situation to sink in. Men, women and children were involuntarily uprooted from their homes, violently packed onto a ship like canned sardines and taken to a new land where they would be worked to the bone day after day.

Over the next 250 years, America would see many slaves step onto its soil. The US Constitution would make slavery illegal in the Northwest Territory in 1787 but Congress would not ban the slave trade until 1808. The demand for slave labor sky rocketed at the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in 1793. Those who tried to revolt were hanged. Those who tried to escape and were caught were returned to their slave master per a federal law. In 1863 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the Confederate state “are, and henceforward shall be free.” Two years later the thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery throughout the United States. However, it would be 2 months before slaves in Texas heard the news they had been freed.

“It has been called by a great many names and it will call itself by yet another, and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume.” –Frederick Douglass

If you read my last column, the first of a series on slavery in America, you know that there are approximately 1 million slaves in America today.* Oh sure, the thirteenth amendment did declare the end to all slavery in 1865, but in the 150 years since, the slave trade has grown like a pesky little weed throughout the United States. Next to the largest industry in the world, drug trafficking, human trafficking is the second largest industry, closely followed by arms trafficking.

The quote above, of activist and leader Frederick Douglass, is disturbingly true. We might not see Africans picking cotton in the south anymore and we might have an emancipation proclamation, declaring freedom for all men, women and children, but today we find ourselves further immersed in a culture of slavery than when Lincoln gave his speech.  

So if slavery today doesn’t look like it did 150 years ago, what does it look like now?

At the core, slavery is the buying and selling of human beings. Slavery is involuntary subjection to another or others. Unlike drugs, people can be sold over and over again. The average cost for a human being around the world is roughly $50 USD.

The root of slavery is buried in deep, dark soil. The root is nourished by a demand and as that demand increases, the root breaks through the surface, spreading like wild weeds destroying everything in its path. It is the demand for slaves that has changed over time, giving shape to a number of types of slavery that exist today.

Sex trafficking is the most known form of modern day slavery. Obviously, the demand for this type of slavery is sex. Often we think of sex trafficking happening in Southeast Asia or on the crowded streets of Calcutta. But don’t be fooled. The demand for sex, mostly for young girls, is happening across America. Just today, Superbowl Sunday, CNN ran an article about Miami’s recent peak of sex trafficking to meet the demands for sex from those traveling to Miami for the game. There is much discussion on the issue of sex slavery and prostitution. Check back for an upcoming post on this issue. Sex slavery is not confined to street corners or dark alleys. Brothels exist behind restaurants, massage and nail parlors, motels and small businesses.  

Labor trafficking is another form of slavery happening right here in America. Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.**

In the first column in this series, referenced above, I mentioned I had the privilege of hearing a survival story of a young woman who had been trafficked into Orange County. This young woman was only a child when she was brought to America and forced to work as a domestic slave and caregiver to the other children in the home. She slept in the garage without light or access to the outside and where field mice frequented her. Last week I heard another woman share her story of being brought to US and sold to work as a domestic slave, caring for 4 homes and several children. She was a child herself at the time and was enslaved to this large family for 7 years. This is happening to other children across the United States.

As I mentioned above, slavery is not new to America. Slavery is not new to the world. Slavery is not new to God. As this series on HT continues, I’ll write about what we know of God’s character and response to HT by taking a look at what the Bible tells us. The idea of a person being bought and sold over and over again angers me. I think it angers God too. Keep checking back about once a week and you’ll see why I think this.

Also in future columns, I’ll be addressing the issue of demand for slavery and what you and I can do about diminishing it.  

In the last post and here I have mentioned a few of the areas I’ll be writing on in regards to HT in America. I would like to hear from you on this as well. Are there areas of HT that you’d like me to research and write about? Do you have questions about modern day slavery? Whatever it is, I’d love to hear from you. ConversantLife.com is a place where we can have discussions about tough issues like this and really learn from one another. I welcome your thoughts.

If you know of someone who meets one of the types of HT mentioned above, the national number to call is (888) 373-7888. It’s an easy one to memorize and even easier to put into your cell phone. If ever you have a suspicion of trafficking, do not hesitate to call. You may be saving someone’s life by doing so.

*Victims of crimes such as trafficking and violence don’t often speak up about the crimes committed against them due to fear placed upon them by their abuser, therefore making this number hard to pinpoint as exact.

**Definition taken from Live2free.org website.